Archive for July, 2010

Earlier this week, a friend invited me to her country home for a tea luncheon—just the two of us. A well-organized woman, every thing was ready when I arrived. We sat in her quaint kitchen of beautiful antiques.

It was easy to see how much forethought went into preparing lunch, even for one guest: what to make, what ingredients to load up on at the supermarket, scheduling prep and cleanup time, and all the other fussing we do to make guests feel comfortable.

The shopping, the cooking, and the cleaning are familiar tasks, most done daily in simple terms. As a hostess, we don’t always think about these simple tasks (driving to the store, peeling, chopping, tasting) and the impressive measure they bring to the table through savory flavors and visual presentation. However, the guest does—every step every rhythm—and it makes her (or him) feel downright grand.

After consuming a second helping of tea sandwiches, and fresh summer salads (so yummy I couldn’t control myself), we took a stroll through her well-loved garden, and then chatted under a beautiful covered patio.

There’s something reassuring and satisfying about those who share, who take the time to make you feel celebrated.

Thank you, friend, for the delicious meal, the garden stroll, friendly conversation, and more. It made my ordinary week exceptional.

Like this:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE . . . the WINNER of In and Around the Garden’s First Book Give-Away Contest is . . .

VALERIE H.

Congratulations Valerie. Amy Stewart’s book is packed full of helpful information. I hope you enjoy it.

To those who participated, but didn’t win, a big fat thanks to each of you.

Before I post the next contest, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the first one, and on future contests. Without your suggestions, I’m guessing in the dark how you’d like to compete, what you would like for prizes, deadline timeframe, if the first contest requirements were too steep, or the book undesirable or if it even matters—not everyone cares what the prize is or likes to participant, and that’s okay. If you’re enjoying the read, then I’m happy.

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It’s been a strange season in my vegetable garden. The green beans never developed runners and they are producing a less-than-normal crop. Looper (Trechoplusia ni) caterpillars ate my lettuce crop overnight. Tobacco Streak disease attacked the Mortgage Lift tomato plant. It has one tomato. And remember when I showed you a photo of ants in the zucchini blossoms, and after researching a solution I decided to try corn meal as a pesticide—well as you can see in the photo below, the ants moved out (or died off) and tiny frogs moved in. Okay by me, they’re much cuter and they eat the bad bugs. (Okay-okay, I know ants eat aphids, but my zucchini plant didn’t have aphids. The ants were after the nectar. If you have a large army of ants like my zucchini plant, the blossoms will drop off and as a result, no zucchini.)

That problem solved, my crazy zucchini plant is producing elephant-size leaves (see photo below) which explain why I missed the oversized zucchini (below) at a whopping 20 inches long and 16 inches around. I’m sure there are larger ones in the GuinnessWorldRecords, but never in my garden. The zucchini plant is so large (probably too much nitrogen in the soil) it’s producing fewer veggies, and it’s shading the eggplants. They’ve only produced two eggplants. I may as well pull them out. I may as well pull out the Mortgage Lift tomato plant and live off zucchini and beans! They are producing enough to keep one to two people alive.

From what I’ve read, other central and eastern US gardeners are experiencing some of the same issues, like vegetable plants doing nothing or next to nothing. Some suggest the culprit is a late cold snap, heavy rains, and minimum solar. Too much nitrogen or one plant shading another may not be the problem after all. Without having the soil tested, I’ll never know. However, I do know that I’m not alone when I say it’s a strange growing season this year.

(Note: Remember, entries for the Book Give-Away Contest closes at midnight today, July 28, 2010 . Good luck!)

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Here are a few of my favorite flowers blooming in and around my garden this summer.

The flowers in the photo above include Salvia Blue, yellow Festival Gerbera Daisies, and pink Pentas. They rise from a small rectangle concrete planter outside a floor-to-ceiling window. Every season I fill the planter with colorful annuals, easily seen from inside the house. Normally, I choose flowers with a matching color in the petal or center. I have to say, I like the combination, especially the pop of yellow.

In my back patio, Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) adds a mix of leaf pattern and color. No need for anything else as it would be too busy. A shade-loving annual, mine, however, gets part-afternoon sun. Even on triple digit days, it does well as long as I keep it watered.

Above, in the perennial garden, a volunteer grapevine has popped up between the potato vines and the Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), also a volunteer. It will be interesting to see what type of grapevine this is, and if it will produce.

On the other side of the garden is another Black-Eyed Susan with yellow centers (above). Purchased last year at Lowe’s, I asked the nurseryman for the plant’s name. (I hate it when there’s no label.) He said, “It’s a new Black-Eyed Susan but with a yellow center.” Hoping to find a label, I looked for them this year in several nurseries. No luck. I searched the internet for information. No luck. Maybe it didn’t go over so well. Unlike its sister, the stems aren’t strong enough to hold up the flower heads, so staking is required.

Tomorrow, I’ll share an oversized plant and veggie you won’t want to miss.

Having been raised on a farm, we always had fresh raw milk. Dad would bring it home in a gallon jar. There’s nothing better than an ice-cold glass of milk. I would help Grandma Hart (Melita) gather the eggs from the chicken coop. We’d have fresh fruit from the trees. My mom would can apricots, peaches, tomatoes, plums, and applesauce. Grandpa Hart (Elwood) grew watermelons. I remember being with him when he cut a small triangular-shape plug out of a watermelon to see how tasty it was.

My grandparents also grew tomatoes to take to the cannery in Thornton, California. My cousins and I would play in the irrigation ditches in the summer. We’d pick a few ripe tomatoes and floated them down the ditch about fifty feet. By the time they got to us (we’d run ahead) they were icy cold. Yum!

In May, my cousins and I would climb the cherry tree by the school bus stop and have a breakfast of Bing cherries. I remember one fall, trying to make pomegranate jelly. What a mess—juice everywhere. I did that only once.

Like this:

Things are steaming up with the FIRST EVER, BOOK-GIVEAWAY contest. There’s still time to get in on the fun, or keep going if you’re already participating.

Here’s a recap of the contest prize and rules:

THE PRIZE: My mint-conditioned copy (autographed to me) of The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart. Amy Stewart is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, Bird Watcher’s Digest, and Organic Gardening, and the author of From the Ground Up, Flower Confidential, and Wicked Plants.

New Announcement: Amy Stewart has a new book coming out in 2011, Wicked Bugs, so now is a good time to start collecting her ever-popular books for your library.

Here’s how you can win:

You must be a subscriber to play, so be sure to sign up. It’s FREE!

Get5 or more of your friends, family members, and co-workers to subscribe to inandaroundthegarden.net. To qualify, you must sign up a minimum of 5 new subscribers. Be sure to tell everyone that it’s FREE.